About the Craftsman ---- QI WAN

In 1995, I found a knife fan magazine occasionally at a post office and bought one since I was attracted by the knives in it. Then, I began to have an interest in modern knives. Later on, I discovered a kind of black plastic sheath and thought it looked good, but I didn’t know what it was. As I grew more aware of it, I knew it was called Kydex sheath and felt it was marvelous. After that, I bought many knives with Kydex sheaths (I thought only the knives with Kydex sheaths were the best at that time).

In around 2005, I saw a video about the making of Kydex sheath on the Internet and thought whether I could make it by myself for the Kydex sheaths I bought during this period had many deficiencies. However, I had to give up the idea because I couldn’t find ready-made materials in China at that time.

In 2013, I saw someone making Kydex sheaths in the forum and the materials were also sold on the Internet. So, I purchased them and began to make Kydex sheaths by myself according to the videos on the Internet. I failed and felt unsatisfactory at the beginning, but gradually I grasped the right way and made the Kydex sheaths which were the same as the pictures and videos showed. But slowly I found Kydex sheaths were very simple, while leather could make sheaths which were exquisite and had various styles. Thus, I thought whether Kydex sheaths could also be the same with leather ones. Afterwards, I tried to make Kydex sheaths with various styles via engraving, layering, color matching, the use of other materials and so on. Finally, I succeeded in making the Kydex sheaths with various styles like the leather ones. Kydex sheaths can not only be used for holding tools, but also become very beautiful. The simplest material is able to look marvelous, so Kydex sheaths can be also artistic.